A 6-week Guided Journey Through The Profound Changes of Motherhood
The process of becoming a mother is a slow unfurling that reshapes every part of who you are: physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. It can take 2-3 years to fully step into your new identity.
Whether this is your first baby or your fifth, matrescence invites you into a new version of yourself.
A Matrescence Support Group is a safe and loving space to explore this transformation. Once a week, you’ll sit in circle with other postpartum mothers who understand the tenderness of this season. It’s a place to just be YOU, to reflect, to connect, to share stories, and to experience ritual and guided self-discovery.
Join the tribe! You belong here.
14 mother maxiumumJanuary 10 – February 14
Saturdays from 3:00-5:00
Location:
A Family Affair Birth Center
Matrescence is the word for the 2–3 year process of becoming a mother. Moving from woman to mother is one of life’s greatest transformations. We give names to major life transitions to create a shared understanding of the changes a person is experiencing. For example, “adolescence” describes the transition from child to adult. We understand that this stage involves hormonal shifts, changes in behavior, evolving identity, and new ways of relating to oneself and the world. And importantly, we know adolescence takes 8–10 years. It doesn’t happen the moment a 12-year-old gets her first period.
And perhaps most importantly—after she begins menstruating, we would never expect her to “bounce back” to being a child. We expect her to evolve forward.
The same is true for the transition from woman to mother (or from mother of one to mother of two, three, and so on). When we become a mother, we experience radical changes hormonally, physically, emotionally, mentally, and in how we relate to ourselves and the world.
Just as we don’t expect a teenager to go back to being a child, we also shouldn’t expect a mother to “bounce back” to who she used to be. She is evolving forward on her path of womanhood.
As Jessie Harrold beautifully says, “It’s the change that changes everything.”
And the word for this 2–3 year transformational process is Matrescence.
Our journey together will follow a Matrescence framework created by Jessie Harrold, author of Mothershift: Reclaiming Motherhood as a Rite of Passage.
Jessie’s map for moving through matrescence is rooted in the ancient rhythms of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, and expanded on by the universal Mother Powers she has uncovered in her work with mothers as a doula and coach.
Jessie Harrold reminds us in her book that, “While there is a map for this, you also need to know that you can’t do this wrong. There is no right or wrong way to experience this process.
Matrescence is a deeply human, deeply individual transformation. But when we gather in a sacred circle…held in safety, free from judgment or shame, and supported with love, understanding, and acceptance, we’re able to evolve at our own pace.
We evolve together. We rise together.
Unlike typical mom groups, this space isn’t about strollers, diapers, or sleep strategies.
This is about YOU. Your identity, your emotions, your healing, your evolution.
Noticing the seismic shifts in identity, relationships, work, body, spirituality, and the emotional landscape of early motherhood.
Acknowledging what has been lost, such as a sense of identity, freedoms, expectations, and versions of self that no longer fit.
Standing in the “in-between”...no longer the old self, but not yet the new one. This is the threshold space where deep questions emerge: Who am I now?
The new self is taking form and strengthened by intuition, resilience, creativity, clarity, inner knowing, and a newfound sense of self-love and acceptance.
In this guided circle, we will honor your birth story with gentleness, curiosity, and compassion. Through the Hero’s Journey lens, we’ll explore the deeper meaning within your experience and uncover the strength, resilience, and self-love that have been there all along.
A grounding exploration of identity shift. You will “unpack the contents of your life” and simply notice what has changed since becoming a mother.
Together, we will explore the tender place of grief (aspects of ourselves that are no longer with us) in a compassionate and validating environment.
This session is about being in that uncomfortable in-between place. Standing on the threshold of your next self—not who you were, not yet who you are becoming. This week offers normalization of this deep, confusing stage.
This week we will discuss the qualities of Self that are emerging. What strengths are rising in you now that you are a mother?
Let's celebrate your becoming, and the becoming of all of us together! With guided ritual, reflection, art, and a beautiful meal prepared by Shelley.
JOIN THE TRIBE!
This isn’t only about the season you’re in now. When you honor this journey as a rite of passage, you cultivate personal growth skills that will support you through all of life’s great transitions.
Have questions? Email Shelley at
shelley@newmothercaregiving.com
When I became a mother in 1992, something shifted in me immediately. I felt an inner calling to gather with other mothers…to process, share, go deep, and learn about myself and each other. I began facilitating women’s circles organically in the mid-90s, and those gatherings nourished me in ways I will never forget.
Over the past 25 years, I have continued to hold space for women in many forms: prenatal yoga, postpartum yoga, mommy-and-baby classes, birth story processing circles, and a wide variety of women’s support groups.
Creating spaces for mothers to feel seen, heard, and held has been the heart of my work for decades.
Now, with Jessie Harrold’s Matrescence framework, I am thrilled to guide mothers through an intentional journey of motherhood as a rite of passage. One that honors the depth, complexity, and power of this transformational time in a woman’s life.